Am I Too Cautious?

My wife loves to fly with me. It took a while for her to understand that sometimes you have to change plans or just not go at all... I actually sat her down and explained how and why I make those, sometimes disappointing, decisions... She now leaves it totally up to my discretion and never whines when I call off the plans or change them to something doable... Makes for a lot less pressure and get-thereitis
 
I'd rather do what you did and maybe regret it later, than to push on and do something I'm not comfortable with and have it go south.

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FWIW there was an accident several months ago at a fly in breakfast location where an adequate length runway was available and a mooney came in too fast. IIRC On the 3rd (I think) attempted landing the go around was initiated too late and the plane stalled and made a hole in the ground off the departure end of the runway.

The plane and runway were adequate. The approach speed was not.

You gotta know your limitations. If you felt uneasy for whatever reason you made the right choice and it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks about it!!!
 
MBDiagMan said:
The very longest landing I ever made in the Mooney was significantly less than 3,000 feet. I HAD NO WORRY ABOUT THE RUNWAY BEING LONG ENOUGH. The size factored in because of the possible illusion. The Mooney is a low airplane. I dont like the idea of landing on a runway with any loose pavement chunks. I will land my high prop taildragger almost anywhere with no worries. It handles rough fields or gravel just fine.
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Good to hear. I wouldn't take the Mooney into a gravel or grass strip either. Like I said, I've not seen the asphalt runway I couldn't land in a Mooney. But I am in a very different part of the world.

I only busted your chops (I hope) the slightest bit because some day you may HAVE to land that 3K feet. I recall a guy from the FAA talking about accident synopses at Oshkosh. One was a Bo pilot who lost an engine at altitude and tried to bring it into a 3K strip. He overshot and died. I don't want to bd that guy, and I certainly don't want you to be either.
 
Being over cautious can cause one to miss out on opportunities for cool experiences and fun. Throwing caution to the wind can cause one to miss out on the rest of their life. A full and enjoyable life is somewhere inbetween the too extremes. Reaching that middle ground is best reached moving towards it from the over cautious side than the other direction. Live and learn as the saying goes. Gotta do both!
 
steingar said:
Good to hear. I wouldn't take the Mooney into a gravel or grass strip either. Like I said, I've not seen the asphalt runway I couldn't land in a Mooney. But I am in a very different part of the world.

I only busted your chops (I hope) the slightest bit because some day you may HAVE to land that 3K feet. I recall a guy from the FAA talking about accident synopses at Oshkosh. One was a Bo pilot who lost an engine at altitude and tried to bring it into a 3K strip. He overshot and died. I don't want to bd that guy, and I certainly don't want you to be either.
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Landing in 3k is a very different thing than landing in 3k with no engine. For me, right now, the first is childs play, but the second is extremely difficult.
 
Salty said:
Landing in 3k is a very different thing than landing in 3k with no engine. For me, right now, the first is childs play, but the second is extremely difficult.
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You'll broach no argument with me. But its way harder to land a 3K strip without an engine if you can't land with one.
 
Sounds like you did the right thing to me. I would not call that too cautious.

I sometimes get that same uneasy feeling even when doing something that I've done many times. Sometimes it's justified, and sometimes it turns out to be nothing. Rough air, unfamiliar strips, the wind, not getting the approach quite right, engine/prop noises or vibrations, distractions in or out of the cockpit, traffic, etc, etc, ect, can affect all of us and can sometimes make us want to bail. There's not a dang thing wrong with calling it off or going around if something's got you bugged.

On another note, I've never heard of this perception issue concerning small strips. Can't say I've ever noticed what you guys are talking about.
 
Do you care what other pilots think? I guess I'd rather feel a little silly than a lot dead. I plan on not doing a lot of stuff til I have more experience.

Also, if your fiancee is an external pressure (let's see... Pilot, Airplane, enVironment, fiancEe) maybe that's more of the problem that needs to be addressed. As in, was the only negative to you not landing that she "doesn't like it when I don't go when or where she wants"?
 
OkieFlyer said:
On another note, I've never heard of this perception issue concerning small strips. Can't say I've ever noticed what you guys are talking about.
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https://www.faa.gov/pilots/safety/pilotsafetybrochures/media/SpatialD_VisIllus.pdf

Primacy also at work here. I flew out of small strips when I started. Really really WIDE runways screw me up. I flare too high.

I know this about myself though, so I just correct for it. Mix in fatigue or just a case of the temporary "stupid" and I'll be five feet in the air still and out of airspeed on a really really wide runway. (150' or more.)
 
I'm the opposite of the OPer.

Skinny runways are easy. It's the really wide ones that can screw with my perception. I love a good 40 foot wide runway.
 
An interesting addition. When I sat down and read about the airport discussed I learned that runway 1 is right traffic. I would have landed left traffic. By not having my destination before being airborne, causing lack of proper knowledge of the destination airport you can miss such things.

I don't think that choosing destinations while airborne, that you have never landed at before, Is a good idea.
 
MBDiagMan said:
An interesting addition. When I sat down and read about the airport discussed I learned that runway 1 is right traffic. I would have landed left traffic. By not having my destination before being airborne, causing lack of proper knowledge of the destination airport you can miss such things.

I don't think that choosing destinations while airborne, that you have never landed at before, Is a good idea.
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That's what the "RP" is for on the sectional chart. :) You don't need to look it up, at all.

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MBDiagMan said:
I was flying with my fiancée yesterday morning. She loves flying with me, but she doesn't like it when I don't go when or where she wants, even though I am just protecting us both.
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I'm a student Sport Pilot. I had NO clue how much work flying, not to mention landing, was until I got into the cockpit. See if your fiancee would take a few lessons...the first time she's on information overload and so far behind the plane she can't even see it will be the last time she second guesses your choices! Plus, you can share the load when flying so a win for everyone!
 
You didn't feel right and you changed your plan, can't fault you for that.

That said, 3000 is like a little over twice what you need, I'd get some practice in.
 
denverpilot said:
That's what the "RP" is for on the sectional chart. :) You don't need to look it up, at all.
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Yea, except when it's BDN and the only place RP is currently listed for one runway is a notam. Not sure if it showed up in ADS-B notams or not as I saw it before I took off.
 
You might have been too cautious on this one but given the potential consequence of being wrong I don't think it was a terrible way to go. I know I've canceled flights or chosen "safer" airports over stuff that, in retrospect, probably wan't that big of a deal.

I will also say I get the runway length thing. I too fly out of a home field with very long runways- 7,000 and 5,000'. When most of the airports you land at are like that you get used to not having to worry too much about coming in a little high or fast because even if you float halfway the runway and touch down with too much speed you still have room to spare. Hopefully you don't actually do that, but it's a nice psychological cushion. The target is so big it's nearly impossible to miss plus you know practically every blade of grass around that field, how the winds tend to fall, etc, etc. Then suddenly you go to an airport you've never been to with a 3,000' runway and you're ok with heading there because you know you can get the airplane down and stopped in less than half that but at the same time it's half the length of your comfy familiar space and it makes you think on some level "ok, gotta bring my A game to this one". Then throw in a few other things like you described and I completely understand how it all could add up to things not feeling right. When things don't feel right, it's probably best to rethink it on the ground later.

That said, I think you asked this because you know that you probably could have made that landing without any trouble. I'd find another day where you can call ahead for field conditions and then go back and try again just to prove to yourself that you can.
 
chartbundle said:
Yea, except when it's BDN and the only place RP is currently listed for one runway is a notam. Not sure if it showed up in ADS-B notams or not as I saw it before I took off.
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I hate it when the charts aren't updated properly. ;)

We had a similar problem mentioned in the thread about the approaches at my home airport. Long-term NOTAMs instead of updating the plates, kinda breaks the whole concept of having up to date charts on board.
 
denverpilot said:
https://www.faa.gov/pilots/safety/pilotsafetybrochures/media/SpatialD_VisIllus.pdf

Primacy also at work here. I flew out of small strips when I started. Really really WIDE runways screw me up. I flare too high.

I know this about myself though, so I just correct for it. Mix in fatigue or just a case of the temporary "stupid" and I'll be five feet in the air still and out of airspeed on a really really wide runway. (150' or more.)
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Interesting. Thanks for the brochure, sir.
 
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